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History · Amherst Junction

Amherst Junction’s post office opened in 1875, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1969 on and the census since 1880.

1875first post office
0on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Amherst Junction began

When was Amherst Junction founded?

1875

The Amherst Junction post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 49 in 18802020 census: 383151 years
Founding year: the first Amherst Junction post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Amherst Junction’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Amherst Junction are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1930 and 1960, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Amherst Junction’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Amherst Junction’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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People over time

Amherst Junction, census by census

010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020210 in 1930Low: 131

Lost a third of its people between 1930 and 1960, then more than doubled.

12 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Amherst Junction’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Amherst Junction came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Amherst Junction.

Read it all →

Amherst Junction was created when the railroad first came through the county. It was a junction between two railroads: the Wisconsin Central and the Green Bay and Lake Pepin railroads.

Until 1875, the community was referred to as Groversburg, presumably after the Grover family that held considerable property in the area. But when a post office was established in March 1875, it was called Amherst Junction.

It was not until 1911 that the village was incorporated. By 1914, the village had become an important buying and shipping center for potatoes. Many people traveling to the eastern and northeastern parts of the county would detrain in Amherst Junction and hire a rig from a livery in the village to take them to their destination.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Amherst Junction, 1875 to 2020

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1875Post officeThe Amherst Junction post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1969On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 21st century
  6. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 383
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Amherst Junction on the map, 1969 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Amherst Junction. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Amherst Junction on the 1969 USGS mapAmherst Junction on the 1985 USGS map1969Amherst sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Amherst Junction.

Famous people

Famous people close to Amherst Junction

Nobody well known was born in Amherst Junction itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Peter WellerAmerican actor · b. 1947
Garrett Weber-GaleAmerican swimmer · b. 1985
Joe PavelskiAmerican ice hockey player · b. 1984
H
Henry Solomon WellcomeAnglo-American businessman · b. 1853
Suzy Favor HamiltonAmerican middle-distance runner, former escort … · b. 1968
K
Kathy KinneyAmerican actress · b. 1954

Questions about Amherst Junction’s history

What year was Amherst Junction founded?

The Amherst Junction post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.